You’ve set bold goals for the year. Your teams are gathering for a company kickoff, sales retreat, or all-hands meeting to align around what’s next. But here’s the question:

Is your customer experience strategy part of the conversation—or just an afterthought?

Too often, kickoff and alignment meetings focus on internal priorities: revenue targets, product roadmaps, process updates. But without a deep, shared commitment to customer experience (CX), those goals lose impact.

This is your opportunity to do more than launch your goals. It’s your chance to rally your teams around the people who make your business possible—your customers.

As your organization plans its big kickoff or milestone check-ins, don’t miss these opportunities to drive alignment and excitement around CX.

Why CX Belongs at a Company Kickoff

Customer experience isn’t a one-time project or a feel-good slogan. It’s a strategic advantage that requires constant alignment and training across departments, roles, and priorities.

That’s why company planning cycles—especially at the beginning or end of the year—are a powerful time to reinforce CX principles. It’s when:

• Leaders are defining focus areas
• Employees are open to new ideas
• Teams are setting habits that last for months

A kickoff meeting sets the tone for how your organization will treat customers, not just in theory, but in practice.

Yet many companies miss this opportunity. They assume CX will “trickle down” through vague values or customer-centric language. The reality? CX alignment requires intentional planning and consistent communication.

So, how do you make customer experience part of your kickoff without adding more to your already full agenda?

How to Spotlight Customer Experience in Your Kickoff Agenda

If you’re already investing in a company-wide meeting or leadership retreat, you don’t need to start from scratch. You simply need to weave CX into what you’re already doing.

Here are a few proven ways to integrate customer experience into your kickoff:

Celebrate Customer Wins from the Past Year

Start with stories. Highlight real customers who saw value, stayed loyal, or gave meaningful feedback. Share metrics that matter—retention, customer lifetime value, satisfaction scores, positive reviews—but connect them to the people behind the data.

Bring in frontline heroes, cross-functional collaboration stories, or examples of how a customer’s pain point led to product or service improvements. Make customer experience real, measurable, and human.

Bring Customers to the Virtual or Physical Stage

Hearing directly from customers—live or through video—is one of the most effective ways to deepen empathy. Consider:

• Inviting a long-time customer to share why they continue choosing you
• Playing a short clip of a customer describing how your service helped them
• Featuring a client in a Q&A format to explore how different departments impact their journey

These moments shift perspective. They remind teams that every policy, process, or pitch has a real-world effect on someone’s experience.

And sometimes reality means bringing in the true voice of a customer who didn’t have a great experience. Nothing helps leaders understand why CX is important more than HEARING a frustrated customer.

Walk Through “A Day in the Life” of Your Customer

Show how different parts of the business affect the customer journey—especially the moments teams might not think about. Create a narrative that follows a customer through touchpoints like:

• Visiting your website
• Receiving post-sale communication
• Contacting customer support
• Engaging with your billing process

Use this journey to highlight where handoffs happen, where silos cause friction, and where opportunities exist. This exercise helps teams connect their work to customer outcomes and each other.

You can have fun with this, too. Include real-life budgets, restraints, and hurdles that your team will likely encounter. Show real emails and texts from the example “customer” and exemplify how long it takes for them to get help, what happens when payment options don’t work, and how seemingly everyday activities can influence your customer’s overall experience.

Why Bring in a CX Expert to Lead This Conversation?

Internal teams are often tasked with leading training, moderating panels, or giving presentations. But when it comes to customer experience, an outside voice can make the message land in a way internal teams simply can’t.

Here’s why working with a CX expert—especially for a company kickoff—adds serious value:

External Perspective Brings Instant Credibility

Customer experience can sometimes feel like a vague or “soft” concept. A third-party expert reinforces its value as a measurable, strategic discipline. The right speaker brings examples from other industries, insights from current research, and practical frameworks that help teams move from awareness to action.

In other words: It’s not just your leadership saying “the customer experience matters.” It’s a respected expert showing them why.

Save Time and Free Up Internal Resources

Kickoff planning is already complex. Creating a compelling CX presentation that resonates across departments takes time, skill, and deep knowledge. A trusted CX consultant can handle the content creation and delivery, allowing your internal teams to focus on other priorities while still delivering high-impact content.

Expert Facilitation Keeps Teams Engaged

Customer experience is about human emotion, and effective speakers know how to connect emotionally (even in virtual formats). A skilled presenter knows how to keep energy high, clarify abstract ideas, and make complex journeys feel relatable.

The result? Your teams not only understand CX—they feel it. And that’s what drives long-term behavior change.

CX Engagement Options to Fit Your Format and Culture

Every organization is different. Whether you’re fully remote, hybrid, or bringing teams together in person for the first time in years, there are flexible ways to include CX in your kickoff—and keep the momentum going beyond it.

Here are a few popular engagement formats that CX professionals (like our own Jeannie Walters) offer:

In-Person Keynote Presentations

Set the tone with a high-energy, story-driven keynote that aligns customer experience with your business strategy. Great for energizing large groups, these sessions combine insight with inspiration and leave teams thinking about the customer long after the event ends.

Pre-Recorded Virtual Keynotes with Follow-Up Content

Virtual kickoffs don’t have to feel flat. A professional virtual keynote can deliver interactive and engaging discussions, complete with custom examples and visuals. Add follow-up videos or discussion prompts in the weeks that follow to keep the conversation alive.

Quarterly All-Hands or CX Check-Ins

Customer experience is an ongoing conversation. Bring your speaker back for quarterly sessions that revisit goals, share updated metrics, and reinforce your CX mission throughout the year. (Our clients love this model! It means deepening the learning on an ongoing basis and maintaining the momentum around the message.)

Department-Specific Workshops or Training

Deep-dive sessions can help teams understand their specific role in the customer journey. These are tailored to each audience:

• Sales: Building trust through transparency and follow-through
• Support: Creating emotional connection during high-stress moments
• Marketing: Aligning messaging with real customer needs
• Operations: Identifying hidden friction in internal processes

These workshops turn high-level principles into department-level action plans.

Why Jeannie Walters for CX Education?

Jeannie Walters isn’t just a keynote speaker—she’s a customer experience investigator with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations turn CX strategy into action.
As the founder of Experience Investigators, Jeannie has worked with Fortune 500 companies, fast-growing SaaS startups, and mission-driven nonprofits to deliver unforgettable CX content. Her presentations are built around storytelling, data-driven insights, and a deep understanding of how real teams operate.

What sets her apart?

• She gets teams. Jeannie works with CX leaders, frontline staff, and executive teams every day—not just from the stage, but in the trenches. She knows how to meet teams where they are and guide them forward.
• She makes CX real. Jeannie’s sessions don’t just inspire, they equip. Attendees leave with ideas, language, and frameworks they can use immediately.
• She customizes every engagement. No copy-paste presentations. Every keynote or workshop is built for the specific goals, culture, and challenges of your organization.

But don’t just take our word for it. Here is real feedback from Jeannie’s recent sessions:

“We hired Jeannie to present to the top real estate agents and she was phenomenal. Outside of how great she was speaking, she was super easy to work with. She’s very kind, which I value greatly, and the openness with which she talked about what she was going to do and took direction was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t be happier with the results.”
Kathleen B., Director | The Institute of Luxury Home Marketing

“As the executive director of the National Association of State Treasures we were really thrilled to have Jeannie Walters come and talk to us about customer experience. Our members are constantly looking for ways to better serve their constituents and their states. Jeannie really helped them think critically about the services they offer and how to achieve better results for those constituents.”
Shaun Snyder | National Association of State Treasures (NAST)

“Jeannie Walters spoke today and I can’t tell you the number of comments I got from the audience about how awesome she was. She spoke about some things that were so moving and so, they resonated with so many people that were really, really glad that we had Jeannie Walters at our session. And I hope we can bring her back for that very reason. People loved her. She was great.”
PrismHR Attendee

Bring the Power of CX to Your Next Kickoff

You’re already investing in a moment of alignment. Make it matter by aligning around what matters most: your customers.

Bringing in a customer experience expert like Jeannie Walters transforms a routine kickoff into a rallying cry. One that energizes your team, sharpens your strategy, and keeps the customer front and center—all year long.

Want to learn more about bringing Jeannie to your team?

Let’s talk about how we can create a memorable, high-impact customer experience session for your next event.

👉 Reach out now to explore speaking and training options.